Karen Rands - Compassionate Capitalist

In this episode of the Compassionate Capitalist Show, Karen engages in an enlightening conversation with Brett Martin, a seasoned serial entrepreneur, angel investor, venture capitalist, and visionary. Brett shares his remarkable experiences and profound insights, offering listeners a glimpse into the world of entrepreneurship and venture investing. Here are four key takeaways from the episode: 1. Entrepreneurship- Nature vs. Nurture: The discussion delves into the age-old debate of whether entrepreneurs are born or made. Brett shares his personal journey, starting with his entrepreneur journey 'selling seashells at the seashore' to becoming a venture capitalist, highlighting the combination of inherent passion and cultivated desire to venture into the exhilarating world of startups. 2. Becoming a Angel Investor: Brett reveals the pivotal moment when he transitioned to the investor side of the table, exploring different avenues such as solo angel investing, angel networks, and eventually co-founding Charge Ve

William Cheshier, founder of CheshTech, joins Karen to share practical tips for building a profitable website that functions as a 24/7 sales and marketing tool. The discussion highlights the common mistake of thinking that simply having a website is sufficient, emphasizing the need for strategy and careful consideration of the target audience's experience. The conversation delves into the importance of aligning a website with the needs and desires of visitors, addressing questions such as what the business offers, how it improves lives, and how to access its products or services. Additionally, the episode also explores the unique challenges faced by sustainable and impact companies, including effectively communicating their value proposition and integrating digital media messaging with website and customer engagement strategies.  Overall, the episode emphasizes the significance of building a compelling website that resonates with visitors, aligns with the company's goals, and enhances user experience-- while

Cashflow and skilled resources are critical as a business grows. Your business can't grow if the CEO is wearing all the hats.  Kristy Yoder, Founder and CEO of SMART VA, as a successful female business owner, share with Karen lessons learned from her journey of building a virtual assistant and interim execs outsourcing business that helps small businesses manage their resources, hiring, cash flow, and scaling their businesses. In this lively conversation, Karen and Kristy talk about how the importance of identifying your niche and focus, assessing your goals and skills so you can build a strong team, and the challenges she helps her clients overcome.  Key Take Aways are:  1. Building a Strong Team is crucial for any business's success. You will learn key factors around hiring people who share their vision, values, and work ethics, with the right skills for the work you need done as your scale your business.  2.  Cash Flow Management is critically important especially during the initial stages of business grow

During this interview, Karen and Matt discusses the importance of investing in climate change technologies and provides insights into how businesses can leverage these investments to make a positive impact on the environment.  It is BIG opptunity to solve the BIG problems and Trillions of dollars will be invested by private investors, institutional investors, corporate venture funds, governments and non-profits over the next 5+ years.  Key Takeaways: 1. Climate change is a pressing global issue that requires urgent attention. Matt stresses the urgency of taking action to combat climate change and encourages investors and entrepreneurs to get involved in the fight. 2. Investing in climate change technologies can be a win-win for both the environment and businesses. Matt explains that investing in climate change technologies can lead to cost savings and increased profitability for businesses while also helping to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. 3. Collaboration is key: The interviewee emphasize

Brad Feld, the Co-Founder of Techstars, the Managing Director at Foundry VC Group https://foundry.vc/blog/ , and author of numerous books as part of the Startup Revolution series, the latest: Startup Boards (https://feld.com/books-on-startups-entrepreneurship-and-venture-capital/) Brad joins Karen to share his fascinating journey from entrepreneur, starting his first businesses while still in college. Early success started him on his journey of discovery of how to lift up innovative startups by investing needed capital and assisting with time, resources, and sometimes more (patient) capital to achieve the goal of a successful exit.   He shares his experiences from successes and failures along the way.  This is such a great opportunity to hear from an investor that began investing before the dotcom, navigating through a dark period for the venture space, the Great Recession and his recommendations for navigating our uncertain current economy.   You will want you to share this with your friends and followers, a

Using Conscious Capitalism philosophy and unconventional marketing approaches, David Valentine, CEO & Founder of Avadel Agency, was able to rapidly grow his 7 businesses by investing money into his people. David's businesses  have generated over a billion dollars collectively for over 1000 clients, including major brands and fortune 100 companies, and positioned him to be able to invest $3Million into companies this year alone.  David is a great example of Compassionate Capitalism and Conscious Capitalism all blended into ONE.  He joins Karen on The Compassionate Capitalist Show to share his perspective on growing businesses and generating massive revenue that you can bank. Key Take Aways: Why investing in your employees leads to massive revenue Why businesses should prioritize excellent marketing to become 'visible' to their target customers What is David's BIG BOLD goal and why you should have one too David is making his educational video series "7 Modules to Revolutionize Your Sales Approach" free to

Experienced Angels know how to mitigate their risk through diversification.  This episode of The Compassionate Capitalist Show features Karen Rands as she shares her experience and perspective on diversifying an angel investment portfolio to increase the odds of winning the wealth creation game.  Karen attended the Angel Investor Diversification Strategy Panel at the 2022 TiE-Con - TiE Atlanta's signature annual business conference.   She was delighted to hear the strategies these angel investors shared that were part of how they insured success and large returns on their angel investment portfolio were the same strategies she shares in her book: Inside Secrets to Angel Investing and in her Compassionate Capitalist Wealth Maximizer System.  Key Take Aways: Diversify by Industry, Stage, and Type of Investment - Have Discipline to Allocate a Specific % of Your Investment Portfolio - Create a Plan for Investing Regularly to Build a Portfolio of Private Deals - Expect Some Losses, Off Set by Overall Success o

Debt for a business can be a saving grace for a growing business or a nail in their coffin, if they don't understands the 3 Legs of Lending.  Paul Neal joins Karen Rands on The Compassionate Capitalist Show to explain how to make debt work for a company's growth strategy.  Paul also shares his incites on the the 3 Cs that are critical to the success of any business.   Along the way, Karen and Neal discuss using debt for acquisition financing, franchise financing, buying out partners and founders, and expanding to bring manufacturing on-shore.   They wrap up this lively interview with Paul's passion for helping entrepreneurs because of his belief that Entrepreneurs are the Hope of the World. We all could use some hope and encouragement as we face uncertain economic times.  This podcast in video: https://youtu.be/A5bqHep_8vk Paul Neal is the founder and Principal Funding Strategist at Vantage Point Commercial Capital, a firm that focuses on helping entrepreneurs and real estate investors win by funding their gr

Bill Nussey joins Karen Rands on The Compassionate Capitalist Show to talk about the $Trillion 'startup' opportunity that no one is talking about - That is, other than a small group of innovators that see the potential of applying the best practices of innovation advancement that we saw advance the stabiliy, power, and miniturization of cell phone technology and mobile computing applied to sustainable energy, namely solar energy, no one has tackled this challenge on an industry wide perspective.  Freeing Energy started as a concept and inspirational TED Talk, and is now a movement - mobilizing the talents and energies of entrepreneurs, policymakers, and communities towards a cleaner, cheaper, and more resilient local energy future. In this episode you will also learn: - Innovation Advancements in Renewable Clean Energy - Opportunities in Climate Tech - How Energy Innovation will be one of the Most Powerful Tools for Social Equity Bill Nussey is a career tech CEO with multiple exits, including an IPO, multip

To Invest in Gold Or Not to Invest in Gold? If YES, then how? Karen Rands is joined by Patrick Yip of APMEX and ONEGOLD to share why it may make sense to invest in Gold as an asset class comparable to stocks and bonds. There is renewed interest in Gold as an investment asset in the face of uncertain economic times. If you have never invested in Gold, or any precious metal, you likely have more questions than answers. This episode of The Compassionate Capitalist Show(tm) offers insights on how to get started investing in Gold, and the opportunity available with technological advances to simplify the process of getting started or expanding your precious metals holdings. What you will learn listening/watching this podcast interview: -  Gold Investing 101: Is it a commodity, a collectable, a currency? -  How Much Should You Invest in Gold - $1000, $10,000, $100,000? -  Technology Powering Direct Virtual Ownership Patrick Yip serves as the Director of Business Development at APMEX and OneGold. http://APMEX.com 

Millennials ask - How to I get Started with Investing in Companies that are Crowd Funding their opportunities.  Karen answers.  Billions of dollars are being invested in companies raising capital directly from the public in legal equity based 'crowdfunding' methods -- Still far under the total capital raised from angels and VCs...(2022 numbers about the same number of accredited investors participated in their private clubs as partcipated in the direct public offerings - Reg CF -- 350,000!!) Why the surge?  90 years to get to 350,000 in angel groups and 7 years to get to 350,000 in Reg CF Crowdfunding?  PSST: It is the scope of the Compassionate Capitalist Wealth Maximizer System - the why, how, and what of angel / crowdfund investing - details below Part of the surge and attraction for investor involvement for 4 reasons: Location  Time Exclusivity Accredited Status.  Yet, those investor are the least informed about budgeting for investments and conducting due diligence to validate the investment opportunit

According to the SBA, the number of Hispanic business owners has grown 34% in the last 10 years. Making Latinx the fastest-growing segment of U.S. small businesses, with an estimated 4.65 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S. The growth of Hispanic consumers in the last decade in the US is unprecedented.  Businesses are waking up to the economic power of Latinx business owners and consumers for B2B and B2C business models. This episode explores the nuance of scaling a business, growing the brand and what is needed to tap into this growing demographic segment. Karen Rands is joined by Gabriela Pulido, CEO and founder of Scalto, a Creative Consultancy firm. Scalto helps Hispanic and Latin American B2B service businesses build scalable business models to grow over time which starts with their proprietary ScaleX Program. In this episode you will learn:  What is a brand?  What it is not? Why it is important to emotionally engage customers (and would be investors) How to define a brand and a corporate cult

Karen Rands is joined by Eric Hazard of Vested Ventures to discuss what “financial literacy” really means and why "fintech" is uniquely qualified to help provide it -- and how Compassionate Capitalists, angel investors, can make money while investing in companies that are solving social and economic inequality.  The lack of financial literacy has created a market ripe for predatory consumer lending abuse with payday lending schemes and the structure of private student loans.  You can trace the greed of certain financial institutions whom preyed on the financial naivete of people of color and first time home buyers with those crazy no money down balloon mortgages, leading to the real estate bubble and great recession 20 years ago.  In this podcast / video cast you will learn:  The basic definition of FinTech and how it has evolved Why financial literacy begins with financial access How FinTech can strengthen relationships between businesses and their employees & customers, and be a force for good Why Vest

Brandon T. Adams joins Karen Rands on The Compassionate Capitalist Show to discuss the meaning of success, overcoming setbacks, and the power of possibility when you use video to share your story and connect with your target audience. This episode is geared toward entrepreneurs and the mindset they need to persevere to reach the culmination of huge success. Hear how Brandon faced bankruptcy at one end of the spectrum to winning Emmy's and closing 7 figure deals at the other end, and the journey along the way. Key take aways: Why going all in is critical to success How to get a TV Show on the air and funded Using business challenges to unlock your super powers Brandon grew up in an entrepreneur family and gained the foundation he would use to build his successful branding business. Brandon is a multiple Emmy Award Winning Producer and Host of the TV Series -- Success in Your City. He uses his knowledge of branding, promotion, and ability to scale and pivot for his clients. He is an expert in video production

Getting started investing in entrepreneurs is very similar to investing in real estate. Karen & Heather delve into the innovative ways real estate investors can use different types of funds to get started in investing with a predictable return, and without all the hassles of searching for good real estate investments and managing those assets directly. Karen introduces the conversation reminding listeners of how she discusses this strategy for those getting started with investing in entrepreneurs in her book, Inside Secrets to Angel Investing, and how that relates to investing in real estate. Hear in this episode: The difference in direct investing and investing through a fund Untapping the financial power of your 401K and/or Roth IRA to invest in real estate Heather Dreves, the Director of Funding at Secured Investment Corp., oversees the management of two funds: High Yield Fund II for Accredited Investors, and the Circle of Wealth Fund III, open to all levels of investors with a minimum in at just $10

Yaniv Sneor, co-founder of the Mid Atlantic Bio Angels (MABA), a life science angel investor group, joins Karen Rands on The Compassionate Capitalist Show to discuss the purpose and process of the investor network. The life cycle and milestones used to measure progress and assess risk of Life Sciences companies as an early stage, pre-revenue company, are different than tech or consumer product companies. Often there isn't a tangible MVP (Minimum Viable Product), a prototype, or a beta to validate that the innovation works. Yet MABA seems to have broken the code and figured out how to evaluate, invest, and create a return on investment in the biomed, med tech, life sciences segment. Investors committed to bringing bio and medical innovations to the market are the minority in the broad scope of angel investors and angel investor groups. Learning from those investors that have figured out how to invest wisely and profiably in this complex sector is incredibly valuable. Yaniv and Karen talk about: Key Milestones

Investing in Tech Startups is not like investing in Med Tech or Bio Med or Life Sciences.  Listen to hear the best practices for investing in innovation that can change the way we live and thrive.  Karen Rands interviews Tico Blumenthal, Life Science Angels, to share with her Compassionate Capitalist Podcast audience the journey from innovation corporate exec to innovation investor. Tico demonstrates how he is a Compassionate Capitalist as he shares his passion, putting his investment capital to work with the intent of serving the aim of better health, globally.  To that end he advises and invests in a diverse portfolio of early stage ventures, including implantable diagnostics, cardiovascular devices and digital health.   Listen to learn about Tico's passion about innovation and some best practices for assessing deals ripe for investment.  Tico Blumenthal, formerly, the head of Global Strategic Marketing at Cardinal Health's Cordis interventional vascular division, and is currently the VP of Product at Eko s

There are many aspects of a business's ability to thrive that are predictable.   Just as in life, businesses can be negatively impacted by things that can't be predicted and even preventive.    There are legal documents like Buy-Sell Agreements, and insurance products like Key Man Insurance, and technology protocols like continuity and redundancy services. The 831(b) is little known tool that businesses can use to 'self-insure' with pre-tax dollars. Much like the 401(k) tax code allows an employer to set aside tax-deferred dollars for retirement, the 831(b) tax code allows a business to set aside tax-deferred dollars for underinsured and/or uninsured risks. The similarities are clear and business owners should consider the risk mitigation advantages, before the next pandemic, natural disaster, or global supply crisis. Ed Bryan of SRA 831(b) Admin joins Karen to discuss this critical, and little known, element of the tax codes that benefit businesses, large and small.    Ed Bryan has more than 20 years of sale

When business owners focus on the strengths of their employees, rather than their shortcomings, they will understand how to boost performance and profit.  'No one wakes up and says I want to be an average employee today (sic)', Brandon Miller during the show.  When you  empower employees to  become peak performers, everyone wins, including the owners and investors in that company.  Brandon Miller shares with Karen how he works with Executive Teams to find the strengths of the management and employees, as individuals, an integral part of the human machine of the company to be fine tuned.  You will hear how to identify and fix these growth killers: disengagement, disappointment, and generational silos to build a thriving corporate culture that achieves its objectives.  Brandon Miller is the Founder and CEO of 34 Strong. Brandon is one of the FIRST 7 Certified GALLUP Clifton Strengths Finder Coaches in the world.  34 Strong is a coaching and consulting firm dedicated to improving employee engagement. Brandon has

The old, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. isn't a good business strategy. Not 'fixing something in you business could mean that there are hidden expenses and inefficiencies that prevent you from growing at the pace you would like, and potentially create friction with your customers that effect retention. It takes courage to make the bold choice to transform your brand, product, or service to the next level by venturing into automating a manual process or figuring out how to use a mobile / web app to improve your operations. Karen Rands speaks with AJ Aluthwala, Co-founder of KallistoArt and ElleApps about the decision process companies should uses when deciding to build or buy software.  AJ shares the 8 elements companies must consider when deciding to move forward with application development:  customer experience, brand recognition, engaging customers, increasing customer loyalty, improving customer service, unique function/features, consumer trends,and marketing tools.          AJ's Free gift  -- What